Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion
...

Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion section of the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass. As such, our focus starts there and spreads to include Massachusetts, the nation and the world. Since successful blogs create communities of readers and writers, we hope the \x34& Co.\x34 will also come to include you.

As I’ve said before, you don’t have to criminalize unhealthy behavior to reduce it. Case in point is the greatest public health success story since the development of antibiotics, vaccinations and sewage collection and treatment systems.
Smoking tobacco among American adults has now dropped to 18 percent, the CDC reports. Considering nicotine is a contender for the most addictive substance known to science, that’s pretty impressive. Here’s how the numbers have changed over the last 50 years:

Smoking Prevalence Among U.S. Adults, 1955–2010
(as a percent of population, 18 years of age and older)

Year

Overall Population

Males

Females

Whites

Blacks

1955

—

56.9%

28.4%

—

—

1965

42.4%

51.9

33.9

42.1%

45.8%

1970

37.4

44.1

31.5

37.0

41.4

1980

33.2

37.6

29.3

32.9

36.9

1990

25.5

28.4

22.8

25.6

26.2

2000

23.3

25.7

21.0

24.1

23.2

2002

22.5

25.2

20.0

23.6

22.4

2003

21.6

24.1

19.2

22.7

21.5

2004

20.9

23.4

18.5

22.2

20.2

2007

20.8

23.9

18.0

21.9

23.0

2010

19.3

21.5

17.3

21.0

20.6

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web: www.cdc.gov.